The invention relates to an arrangement for installing a prefabricated cable harness in the interior of a still empty vehicle body of a passenger car at the initial stage of its final assembly. The cable harness consists of a plurality of branches, two of which, the longitudinal branches are arranged in such a way that in the installed state they come to rest on the inside of in each case one sill beam. At least one further branch, i.e., a transverse branch is arranged in such a way that in the installed state it runs on the inside transversely across the floor of the passenger compartment so that the cable harness has an H-shaped or ladder-shaped structure which extends over the entire inner width of the passenger cell. Each branch consists of a multiplicity of conductors which run in an enclosure which is flexible to a limited degree, is shaped in a defined fashion and matched to the shape of the vehicle body along the laying path. The conductors at the junction points of the different branches pass through an adjacent enclosure without interruption and in different courses. Cable conductors or flexible bundles with few conductors, which combined form in each case one flexible bundle which are to be laid individually in each case and are to be connected to electrical loads, emerge at least at both ends of the enclosures of the two longitudinal branches.
This type of arrangement is known from, for example, German Patent Document DE-PS 33 37 596. In the German Patent Document DE-PS 33 37 596, it is proposed, for the purpose of the mechanized installation of electrical lines combined to form a cable harness, to stiffen the cable harness in such a manner that it has the necessary dimensional rigidity for the use of automatic handling devices. As a result, although the problem of handling the cable harness by an automatic device is solved, the necessary design of an automatic device for installing a bulky cable harness in the interior of a vehicle body through the vehicle body openings which permit only limited displacement paths and components of only a limited size is, however, not indicated.
There is therefore needed an arrangement for the mechanized installation of the cable harness of the generic type in the passenger cell.
This need is met according to the present invention with an arrangement for installing a prefabricated cable harness in the interior of a still empty vehicle body of a passenger car at the initial stage of its final assembly. The arrangement includes a program-controllable, flat gripper which can be moved independently in all three spatial directions and is adapted to the cable harness. The displacement space of the gripper extends between a positionally defined location at which the cable harness is prepared and the location at which the vehicle body is prepared. In the gripper, two parallel gripper arms project freely from the gripper holder in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle so that the gripper arms can be inserted into the interior of the vehicle through the windscreen opening or rear window opening and can be lowered to the level of the floor of the passenger compartment.
The bundles are enclosed or bound provisionally with reversible material and turned back parallel to the longitudinal branches. In addition, the arrangement has a scissor-type elevating platform for preparing in each case a cable harness which is held on a cable harness carrier as a transport vessel, in a desired shape, at least approximate to the later installation position of the cable harness. For receiving the longitudinal branches and the cable termination bundles of the cable harness, the cable harness carrier has upwardly open rows of forks and a number of cross-struts corresponding to the number of transverse branches for receiving the transverse branches. The transverse branches have in their enclosure one articulation point on each side of the center for bending the transverse branches and for pivoting the two longitudinal branches towards the center in order to reduce the width requirement of the cable harness. The cable termination bundles which are folded back in the cable harness carrier lie at least approximately coaxially with respect to the articulation points of the transverse branches.
In each case, a plurality of prongs for engaging under the longitudinal branches and the cable termination bundles are arranged on the two gripper arms. The engagement takes place by pivoting the gripper arms about a longitudinal axis out of their position of rest into their working position and the setting down of the cable harness is achievable by a reverse pivoting movement.
The advantages of the mechanized installation of the cable harness in the vehicle body are that the heavy and bulky cable harness can be installed reliably and more rationally in the vehicle body. In comparison with manual installation of the cable harness, a savings of a large number of personnel is made since the manual installation requires for a short time a large number of people who are, however, not utilized continuously. In addition, the risk of injury to the hands and fingers of the persons required for the manual installation as a result of sharp edges on sheet metal flanges of the vehicle body is large.
Furthermore, with mechanized installation, damage to the vehicle body or to the cable harness resulting from mutual chafing is avoided. Since with mechanized installation the weight of the cable harness no longer plays a decisive role, the cable harness can be of single-component design as a result of which it becomes more economical and less prone to faults since plug-in connections between branches of the cable harness, which connections are susceptible to moisture and oxidation, are avoided. By providing the cable harness on the cable harness carrier, preparatory work at the assembly line before the installation of the cable harness in the vehicle body is also dispensed with.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.